But have you considered that instead of fireflies, we have HOAs that will fine you if you don't fact a perfect lawn?
Hey folks, it's easy. Leave your leaves in the fall. It will take two years of this. The first year they'll nest there the next they'll hatch. I've been doing it for two years and have more. Especially my front yard where I've never seen them before.
Also, the other day I saw one in a spider web and it flashed back when I put my flashlight on it. (Which is really sad lol.) I did it a second time to check and it did it back a second time. Definitely wasn't coincidence. So all the talk about lights on in your house absolutely is true and it probably confuses them. To the best of your ability turn off lights or at least close curtains and blinds. Definitely turn off porch lights.
They're magical. The sounds and sights of a summer evening are truly an enchanting experience. Especially after dealing with a stupidly hot day lol.
i didnt need to be sad rn
I moved to Minnesota in the early 2000s and was blown away by all of the fireflies. It was magical. I'll never forget snuggling up with someone and watching the fireflies during a thunder storm.
The decline was unbelievably rapid. The last 6 years I was there I'd maybe see one or two the whole summer. If that.
It's so sad because they're truly wondrous creatures.
Over the weekend I saw an incredible display of the blue Ghost Firefly right up in my face while camping in Pisgah. What a thing. I have been reforming my entire yard to facilitate insects. This year I did have a significant amount of fireflies compared to years past. Things can change and get better. They might not, but we might as well try for good.
Oddly this year they are really prevalent in my area. In prior years I haven't seen nearly as many.
I'm intentionally avoiding lawn treatments and insecticides this year. I love my yard, but I'm also thinking about switching to clover.
I saw lightening bugs for the first time in years when I moved to the east coast. I was so excited, I caught some and brought them inside to show my cat (I let them back out of course). Next year, nada. So far this year? Also nada. I even made a point to leave the leaves. 😔
GUYS GUYS I CAME BACK TO THIS POST BECAUSE THERE IS A FIREFLY IN MY BEDROOM!!(I rarely see it theese days but it's here now)
I have participated in No Mow May for three years now. I also have a spot in the yard I let be free (weeded it for invasives) for the same amount of time.
This summer, for the first time since I have lived here, exsists an abundance of fireflys in my yard. They are everywhere, in a way I've never seen since I was a child.
No Mow May, (even if just a part of your yard) gives insects a place. Bugs live in the leaves and natural debris, by keeping it undisturbed, from fall to winter is important for many bugs' survival.
If you like bugs, consider dedicating space in your yard for them to live. Don't keep grass in the typical american perfect lawn way. I suggest not to spray, and look at native grasses and plants first when seeking your landscaping needs.
I've noticed a real difference this year in my yard. Maybe its some coincidence, I don't know. Either way I'm happy to see lightning bugs again
Used to catch them growing up. There would be thousands of them periodically blinking in the yard and across the field every night. It was pretty and serene.
I saw one just the other night when I let my dogs out before going to bed. It was so surprising that I had to wait a minute and verify I wasn't just seeing things. It was a real life lightning bug. It was a happy sad moment.
Fight this by not bagging your leaves. Leave some for our buddies! https://blog.nwf.org/2024/09/leave-the-leaves-to-save-fireflies/
One night in ft Gordon we were doing an FTX and we got out there late and set up the tents in the dark, n in a field of tall grass. No sooner than the tents were set up, an intense rainstorm came through and dumped a metric fuckton of rain in 15-20 minutes. And as quickly as it started, it was over. Afterwards there were so many fireflies it looked like a fantasy movie. I had never seen anything like that. I've been all over the world, hell I grew up in Boulder, on of the most beautiful places on earth, but I've never seen anything even close to that. It was absolutely magical. And my kid gets so excited to see 2 or 3 and it makes me want to cry.
Fireflies are fascinating and beautiful creatures. Another user mentioned donating to xerces society which is a great idea. Another thing that you can do if you are fortunate enough to own land is to replace your lawn (non-native, mowed grass) with native plants and leave the fallen leaves undisturbed.
I replaced my entire lawn with species native to my region and my entire yard is currently covered in multiple species of fireflies. It's so magical to see all the different colors and flashing patterns. Mind you, I live in the city so it's only my yard that is really providing for them. All my neighbors' yards have either no fireflies or a few.
You don't have to replace your entire lawn like I did. Just setting aside some space for our wildlife neighbors is better than nothing. Remember plants are the foundation of almost every food web. For me, it's magical to go outside and see the new blooms and growth, look for new creatures that show up, and just walk the little paths in my small yard. In an age of ecologic collapse and climate change it gives me some sense that I can have a measurable, positive impact and that really helps me mentally.
Well at least we’ll still have lightning bugs, right.
Pasolini wrote a famous essay in 1975, "The Disappearance of the Fireflies," which, at that time, was already starting to become very noticeable. Of course, the essay was really about capitalism.
Personally, outside my childhood in the countryside, I noticed fireflies in the outskirts of a largish city some 20 years ago, then nothing for a very long time, and then I saw a few when I lived for a brief period of time in a really remote place, like an hour from the nearest highway. No trains anywhere near, too.Off-topic, but if you don't know Pasolini, I urge you to read his last interview which seems particularly gloomy as it appears to foreshadow his own death just a few hours after.
One memorable quote:I listen to the politicians – all the politicians – with all their little presumptions and I turn into a mad man as they prove they do not know which country they are talking about, they are as far away as the moon. And together with them there are the men of letters, the sociologists and the experts in any kind of field.
I've been so happy to see them in our yard this year. Enough so that I've stopped clearing brush just in case that's why they're here in such numbers. I haven't seen them like this in a decade or more.
I had wondered why we always seemed to have some fireflies here and it turned out my hatred of raking and leaving the leaves under the bushes helped a lot!
The dad then joins his son laying on the floor and crying
I convinced my inlaws to stop bagging or raking their leaves a few years ago, and they're everywhere now. Not as many as if the whole neighborhood has done it, but more than when I met them.
Wikipedia says the species near me (southern Ontario) are of Least Concern for extinction:
I miss seeing these everywhere in the summer as a kid. Guess I just aged myself lol, but I did see some in the park last night. Nowhere near as many as years ago though.
This is a wild concept to me. I see hundreds if not thousands every night in the summer.
I've seen them once in my life, in Smoky Mountains, about 10 years ago. It was pretty much spiritual experience. The darkness came alive. I cried when I saw their luciferase smeared over windshield and glowing long after the creature was dead. I knew lots of lore about them, saw them in mass culture - never realizing I never saw one myself, even though I take care to notice all living things around, from bacteria and yeast to mycchorizal networks.
I live in Europe.
Alexa, play Owl City - Fireflies
More seriously, I'm pleased to see I'm not the only person who views this as a terrible loss.
Recent IUCN Red List assessments for North American fireflies have identified species with heightened extinction risk in the US, with 18 taxa categorized as threatened with extinction
